Gratkowski / Brown / Winant

Wake

Label: Red Toucan Country: Canada

The trio of reed player Frank Gratkowski, pianist and live electronics artist Chris Brown, and vibraphonist/pecussionist William Winant performing live at Mills College.

"Improvisors work hard with responding to the needs of the moment, and a common danger is that this reacting in differentiated way for some reason ends up with an organic complexity in which improvisations resemble each other despite certain individualities, like trees in the wood. Can we also create overall structures encompassing really different landscapes - I mean, still as improvisors, without resorting to fixed arrangements?

That would be an important virtue to strive for, and this trio seems to possess it. Sounds develop into relatively sustained structures that move and change for a long time while remaining themselves - the last 4 pieces do, in fact, appear exactly as "pieces" in this way. First track is a long one. It develops from pointillistic to conversating to something spun by longer "threads" - first aetherically light, then with interweaving moves of voices - to a rejoicing in high interferences eventually becoming clusters with fast interweawing movements finally becoming a sort of freejazz gymnastics. This last, rather predictable kind of sound is the only exception of its kind to all the other things happening.

Last but not least one more virtue must be mentioned: that of creating interesting and vivid interactions between live-electronics and instruments, a juxtaposition which so often produces debatable results. This record is an argument against those who think improvisation always sound the same."-Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Intuitive Music CD Reviews